Pain to Power
by Lyrium eidolon
Summary: Akira had fallen. Takumi has died... or has he? As he rises again in black and yellow robes, he shall find power, but will this new power cause the world itself to perish?


**Author's note: **This story begins immediately after the defeat of Gennai in the Mai Hime anime.

**Disclaimer:** The following is a non-profit fan-based piece of fiction. Mai Hime is owned by Sunrise and Yugioh 5Ds is owned by (as far as I know) Kazuki Takahashi.

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Chapter 1: Black Robes

The large mechanical frog's head was separated from its body in one swift strike. The green-haired ninja girl lying on the ground saw this, and knew that something would happen to her Tokiha Takumi, the one she had come to treasure. Indeed, something did happen… he felt a bad pain in his chest, clutched at his heart, fell over…

…and woke up on a cliffside overlooking the Fuka Academy Director's mansion? How did he get there? Wasn't he in the middle of a forest with his older sister a minute ago? Wait, something was wrong here; he saw that he was dressed in black clothes with yellow linings, and that his hands had been covered by thick brown gloves. On his left arm was a Duel Disk the likes of which he had never seen before; it featured an orange gem, it seemed to have a fin-like design to it, and the deck slot looked like a fiend-like mouth. He didn't remember having a Duel Monsters deck with him in the hospital, did he?

Before succumbing to the chest pains, he was worried that he wouldn't get to see his friends again; friends like Aoi Senoh, Chie Harada, Mikoto Minagi, his lover Akira, or the two childhood friends he had in Neo Domino City, Luna and Leo. What happened to him?

"Crush them all!" Those words suddenly resounded in his mind. He remembered… a monkey… a large, black monkey… fighting against Nao Yuuki who had tried to abduct him in hospital, a sword-wielding shadow, a bird and something else on the cliff.

His right arm itched. Pulling the glove back, he discovered a strange symbol on his arm. It looked like… a monkey, and it was purple colored. Purple flames… he suddenly remembered purple flames springing up in the forest, with that same monkey symbol forming in the sky. A large, purple, snake-like monster had appeared and… what was it? Why did he have that weird illustration on his arm?

Right then, it started raining, causing Takumi to run into the nearby trees to find cover… until he remembered that his outfit came with a rain-proof hood. The only light he had was that of the moon, but when he looked up at it, he also saw a small red sphere. Was that the star that his sister could see? It was so beautiful. He kept walking forward, unsure of any other course to take when his foot slipped on the cliff edge. The world was spinning, faster and faster, until…

BAM

Takumi found himself on the ground under the cliffside. He should be dead, but he wasn't. What was happening to him? _Why_ was this happening to him? He thought they were all friends. Yes, they might have only been friends with his sister Mai, but still that didn't mean he couldn't speak to them. As far as he knew, the people he was in touch with had no reason to hate him. For Nao to suddenly break into his hospital room and attempt kidnap or murder, why would she do that? What had his sister supposedly done to blind her in that area with the eye patch? Why did she hide from him that she was what Akira called a HiME? Sugiura-sensei too, what was that power she had? Those monsters… what were they?

He could hear a bike pull up, though if the sound of it was anything to go by, it wasn't an ordinary bike. If he was hearing it right, it was a Duel Runner, which meant a Turbo Duelist. What was a Turbo Duelist doing in Fuka? He could hear it coming closer and closer, yet from the sounds of the following deceleration, the rider knew someone would be there.

It came to a stop directly by him.

"Hey, kid? Are you okay?" a voice asked. It sounded rough, but Takumi needed someone to talk to.

"Who… is that?" he struggled to respond. For some weird reason, his strength was returning to him, and he found he could stand.

"Later. First we need to get out of the rain! Jump on, and hold tight." The man looked similar to him in that he had black clothing, but his had blue lining instead of Takumi's yellow. The man's Duel Runner was also blue, but seemed to have a few extra decorations.

"What happened to me?" He climbed on to the back and held onto the man from behind.

"I'll explain later, but based on what I've seen tonight, I'd say you and I have something in common."

"What?"

"We've both been _sold out_."


End file.
